US stocks advanced modestly on Monday in light trading in one of the year's quietest sessions on the day before the US presidential election. Whatever the outcome of the race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the election's resolution will finally end the uncertainty that has kept the market stagnant for the past few weeks.
"No one's going to make big bets today," said Perry Piazza, director of investment strategy at Contango Capital Advisors in San Francisco.
Just 5.16 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT on Monday, below this year's average daily volume of 6.5 billion.
"[The market] has been directionless over the last few weeks because of what fiscal and tax policy looks like next year. You could argue that just having the uncertainty behind us could lead to a bit of a relief rally," Piazza said.
The Nasdaq was the strongest of the three major US stock indexes, helped by a rally in Apple Inc, the most valuable publicly traded US company. Apple's stock rose 1.4 percent to close at $584.62. The stock has fallen 17 percent from its closing high of $705.07 on September 21.
The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 19.28 points, or 0.15 percent, to end at 13,112.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.06 points, or 0.22 percent, to 1,417.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 17.53 points, or 0.59 percent, to close at 2,999.66.
The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, Wall Street's favourite barometer of investor anxiety, rose 4.72 percent - a relatively big move compared with the S&P 500 - to end Monday's session at 18.42.
The PHLX semiconductor index rose 1.6 percent and bolstered the Nasdaq. An index of housing-related shares gained 1.8 percent. In the energy sector, the S&P energy index gained 0.7 percent following a gain in crude oil futures prices and third-quarter earnings from two major energy companies.
Transocean Ltd, which operates the world's largest offshore oil drilling fleet, gained 5.6 percent to $48.64, a day after the company reported a higher-than-expected adjusted profit for the third quarter. Shares of Southern Co, the second-largest US power company, fell 2.5 percent to $44.62 after Southern posted third-quarter earnings.
The S&P utilities index, down 1.66 percent, was the worst performing of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors a week after superstorm Sandy hit New York City and surrounding areas.
Shares of Time Warner Cable, the second-largest US cable operator, lost 6.4 percent to $91.93 after the company reported a quarterly profit that missed estimates as it lost more video subscribers than expected.
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc surged 31.2 percent to $49.07 after the company said a late-stage trial of its experimental drug for a rare genetic disorder could improve patients' walking ability when the medicine is administered weekly. The rally in BioMarin's stock helped drive the Nasdaq biotech index up 1.7 percent. Despite the light volume on Monday, the market's breadth was positive. Advancers slightly outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of 15 to 14. On the Nasdaq, about three stocks rose for every two that fell.
Comments
Comments are closed.